Secondary Schools: Performance Tables (Hansard, 2 April 2003)

§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Education and Skills (Baroness Ashton of Upholland)
My Lords, we believe it important for accountability to continue publishing data which reflect the performance of individual schools. We recognise that, as our 14 to 19 reforms are realised, a means must he found for ensuring performance measures properly reflect increased collaborative working. We are working on this now. But schools must remain accountable for the services they provide to their students, whether directly or in collaboration with other institutions.

§ Baroness Sharp of Guildford
My Lords, I thank the Minister for that reply. Does she realise that teachers and inspectors are becoming increasingly unhappy with the degree to which the education system, like the health system, is driven by targets and performance indicators? First, Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Schools, Mr David Bell, has been attacking targets as distorting the primary curriculum. Now we have his predecessor, Mr Mike Tomlinson, arguing that performance indicators are unnecessary because 1316 schools ought to be co-operating. When will the Government learn the lessons of the Soviet system that performance indicators and targets serve no other purpose than to alienate the workforce and distort and frustrate the objectives they are seeking to obtain?

§ Baroness Ashton of Upholland
Well, my Lords, once again the noble Baroness equates what we are trying to do in schools with the Soviet system, which I find rather alarming from a Liberal Democrat policy perspective. I should like to quote Mr Bell from the Times on Monday, when he said: There is an entirely legitimate debate"— which we accept— about how secondary tables properly reflect performance. But it would be extremely bad news for parents if less information were to be made public". Referring specifically to the Question, it is very important that, as we develop the ability to be more creative and to reflect the performance of schools, we do so. However, it would be entirely wrong to see this as a mechanism to say that we should rid ourselves of such very important information for the standards-raising agenda.

§ Baroness Blatch
My Lords, I do not agree that it is Stalinist. I think it is more Maoist than Stalinist. The noble Baroness appears to be confused about government-led targets and government performance indicators and outcomes from schools. It is essential that we know how young children are progressing. It is certainly important to their parents and to the local community. It is also important to the way in which the country as a whole is progressing. However, government meddling and government performance targets on almost everything that professionals do in the health service and in education are stifling professionalism and progress.

§ Baroness Ashton of Upholland
My Lords. I am not sure whether being called Maoist was a compliment in the context of having been called Stalinist, but I accept that it was probably not. I am not at all confused about targets and tables. The Question referred to tables, which is where I began. If the Government are serious about what we are trying to do for our children—and for our health service—it is important that we are clear about how we measure our own success. It is right and proper to have targets aimed at ensuring that as many as possible of our 11 year-olds are able to access the secondary school curriculum. It is also right and proper to say that we want as many of our young people as possible to get good GCSEs at grades A to C. I shall be proud to be measured on that, because it is terribly important.
It is also important that we celebrate what our schools are able to achieve with our young people and support those schools that need additional help. One way in which parents in particular get their information is through those tables.
1317 I accept that, as we develop the collaborative working that we want, especially around the 14 to 19 agenda, we must work out cleverer and better ways of ensuring that the tables reflect what is happening in schools. In his lecture, Mike Tomlinson was musing over the issues that need to be raised rather than making a point about what he believes should change.

§ Baroness Perry of Southwark
My Lords, does the Minister accept that the imposition of targets from outside a school often distorts what a school is trying to do to respond to the needs of its pupils? More than anything else, schools desperately need a period of continuity and calm to pursue the national curriculum and their own internally set examination targets without further interference from the Government.

§ Baroness Ashton of Upholland
My Lords, what the noble Baroness refers to as interference I see very much as part of the supportive mechanism that we have put in place to work with our schools. It is terribly important that we have high aspirations for every school. Noble Lords will know from their own familiarity with schools and from the work that has been done, not only by this Government, that we have achieved a step change in the ability of schools to deliver for their pupils a good, rounded curriculum that enables those young people to succeed. We should all be proud of that.
Part of looking across at the successes must be to define what we can do further. The work on key stage 3 for 11 to 14 year-olds and on the 14 to 19 strategy is all about what more we can do to support young people to be able to deliver. All these reforms are based on the best practice that we see in our schools and are generally welcomed and applauded by them.

§ Lord Forsyth of Drumlean
My Lords, I welcome the conversion of the Minister and the Government to league tables. Does she share my concern about the amount of time that youngsters, particularly those doing AS-levels, are spending working for examinations? Children are now being over-examined. That is distorting the curriculum in the sense that teachers have to spend all their time teaching children to pass examinations. Could we not have a little more balance in the system?

§ Baroness Ashton of Upholland
My Lords, in a sense that is a further reflection beyond where the Question takes us. I accept that, as part of the 14 to 19 strategy, it is very important to consider the collaborative models that involve schools and further education and how exactly we ensure that we have the necessary breadth of curriculum, which is why we brought in AS-levels. Noble Lords will know that Mike Tomlinson and the 14 to 19 working group are beginning to examine how we get that breadth, how we ensure that young people are examined correctly and properly—that is important, not least to your Lordships—and how we make sure that, in doing so, we give them the rounded education that they desperately need.